Ryan Steede has experienced both triumph and despair on Bermuda?s current tour of Toronto.

Steede rejoined the national squad earlier this month following a seven-week playing stint at Atherstone CC in the UK.

And his reunion was met with instant success as he returned impressive figures of four for 127 off 24 overs with two maidens against hosts Canada in the Intercontinental Cup ? Steede?s best bowling performance in the tournament to date.

However, any personal satisfaction was soon replaced by anxiety as Steede re-aggravated an old knee injury sustained in a cycle crash.

Anxiety was then replaced by despair after the towering seam bowler learned his injury was far worse than initially diagnosed, and that he would see no further action in the middle.

Steede continues to undergo treatment and works out with his team-mates during fielding drills here in Toronto, but has not been involved in any of Bermuda?s limited overs matches against Canada, Argentina and Cayman Islands.

?My confidence is sky high at the moment, but it is just unfortunate and very frustrating that my knee is holding me back a bit,? Steede said.

?Besides Saleem (Mukuddem) I?m probably the only other fast bowler that hasn?t missed any tours since we qualified for the World Cup.

?But I guess sooner or later I was bound to breakdown because everywhere in the world fast bowlers seem to be the first players to get injured. Those things just happen.?

Being sidelined through injury, though, has allowed Steede to observe the action from a different perspective.

And so far he seems to be enjoying every moment of it as Bermuda push for a maiden Americas Championship.

?The guys are hitting good form at the moment and doing so well,? he said. ?And I have to take my hat off to Stephen Outerbridge because he has really come on and shown a lot of commitment.

?Stephen has caused a good headache for Gus and the team is really gelling and everyone doing well.?

Outerbridge narrowly missed becoming the fourth Bermudian batsmen on tour to score a century when he fell for 96 against Cayman Islands on Wednesday at King City.

Now with only one win separating Bermuda from a first Americas Championship, Steede hopes his team-mates can go the distance and win the tournament.

?If we can win this tournament then hopefully that will get the monkey (Stanford 20-20 loss to Jamaica) off our backs from down in Antigua. I wasn?t there, but a lot of people were criticising the national squad,? he said.

?But hopefully winning the Americas will help bring people back on our side. . . they just have to work with us. Our goal is to be number one in the Americas Region and hopefully after this tournament we can go on to become the number one Associate Member. And no matter how you look at it, Bermuda cricket is going forward.

?We have some very talented young players in our team like Malachi (Jones) who played a good innings yesterday (against Cayman Islands) with some nice drives. Then we OJ (Pitcher) and Delyone (Borden) and even George O?Brien jr.

?Our team is unified and everybody is pulling one another. Nobody is separated in our team or any cliques. Everybody is for one another and it is amazing because you don?t find this among too many teams.?

Although his involvement on Bermuda?s current tour of Toronto has been limited, Steede did give enough proof before his knee flared up that his time in the UK was well spent.

?I trained a bit with the Leicestershire County cricket team and spent some time with their bowling coach (Lloyd Tannock) as well during one-on-one training sessions.

?He helped me learn how to drive through the crease and transfer my weight from my front foot to my back foot so I could generate a bit more pace when I deliver,? Steede explained.

?Spending time delivering on each foot causes injury and this is probably one of the reasons my knee is the way it is now. So I spent a lot of time working on my bowling over there,? he added.

?I also worked on holding my lead arm higher and getting my knee to point down the crease a bit more so that when I deliver me foot can land straighter.

?So I did a lot of work at Leicestershire where my bowling action was filmed and later analysed on a computer to show me exactly what I was doing wrong.?